A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
The Woodstock trappings (including selections from the movie sound track) are actually the show’s least convincing components. Despite all the tie-dyes and bell-bottoms and long hair and love beads, these young actors have no real feel for the hippie sensibility. Nor does the play support a late-60s style: an important part of the story is the heroine Hermia’s determination to remain a virgin until marriage, and sexual abstinence was not exactly the rage at Woodstock. The tone of this show is closer to the goofy innocence of mid-60s beach-blanket movies than to the anything-goes experimentalism of the summer of ’69.
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Make no mistake: this is a low-budget production and non-Equity company, and anyone looking for high style and elaborate effects will be disappointed. But the fresh energy and feeling these athletic, intelligent young artists bring to a classic make for exceptionally entertaining and invigorating theater. Far out.
